The Burned-Over District is a term used by some to describe the region of Western New York in the historical period of 1800-1850. It is also sometimes called the Second Great Awakening with a combination of religious, social and political elements.

Friday, January 17, 2014

The True Horror of Calvin's Geneva

John Calvin, who had broken with Catholicism, began to preach in the 1530s. He had great success at Geneva, and set up there a "theocratic" state — that is, one governed by the godly (the Calvinists). Geneva was not a place for the easy-going. Heresy was punished by death; and though that was not surprising in those days, it was distinctly more ferocious to impose the death penalty (as Calvin did) for going off with someone else's wife or husband.